In a happy reversal of fortune, the news from Parkland Memorial Hospital was undeniably positive Wednesday, both for Dallas County’s public health care system and for the residents who stake their lives on it.

By meeting requirements of its Systems Improvement Agreement and regaining federal compliance, Parkland avoided a catastrophic alternative: Texas’ second-largest county without a safety-net hospital.

Instead, Parkland has been declared safe.

At stake was $400 million in federal Medicare and Medicaid funding. Without it, Parkland probably would have ceased to exist. The ripple effect would have touched every other hospital and health care facility across the region and harmed Dallas County’s emergency services rotation.

Parkland’s survival, against long odds, reflects the hard work and determination of a refurbished governing board, a new management team and, critically, thousands of health care workers dedicated to change.

“Parkland is where it needs to be,” said David Wright, deputy regional director for the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversaw the rare monitoring program. “They’ve put themselves in a position to provide sustainable safe care.”

The key is sustainable. That has been Wright’s prime focus since September 2011, when the federal government assumed oversight for Parkland after CMS threatened to pull funding.

The road back has been long and difficult. Government inspectors found failures in infection control and emergency services that placed patients in “immediate jeopardy.” A wider survey cited violations of roughly half of all federal rules for hospitals. This newspaper’s investigative team has documented systemic safety problems that left patients at imminent risk of “serious injury, harm, impairment or death.”

The federal agency ordered a rare form of oversight for Parkland, requiring the hiring of outside consultants to oversee a last-ditch turnaround attempt. Parkland was ordered to upgrade nearly 500 key areas, including revamping its entire nursing organization, improving physician oversight of doctors in training and adhering to better infection controls, including basic hand-washing standards.

By April, Alvarez & Marsal Healthcare Industry Group consultants reported to Parkland’s board of managers that the hospital had completed 97 percent of the mandated corrective-action plan on deadline, at a cost of about $75 million. Medicare surveyors from the Texas Department of State Health Services performed three on-site surveys in June and July, two of which reviewed areas of specific focus.

Parkland’s success means inspectors now believe the hospital has rebuilt its culture to one that meets — and can continue to meet — basic standards of patient safety, though the hospital remains under some state and federal monitoring.

As Wright has said, that culture change cannot stop now that Parkland has survived a near-death experience. “The intent is that it be hard-wired into the place,” he said.

So pause and celebrate a remarkable achievement, one tough to imagine only a year ago. Most important, of course, is for Parkland to prove it can build on its vast improvement to ensure a culture of safe, quality care for the people who truly need it the most.

By the numbers

Parkland Memorial Hospital is Dallas County’s safety-net hospital, dedicated to serving all residents, regardless of ability to pay. Some statistics from fiscal 2012: